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SAVINGS.TXT
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* * * My Little Realm, v2.5 * * *
- Savings -
____________________________________________________________________
General Information
____________________________________________________________________
Important
Savings is protected by copyright. It is not freeware, and it is
not in the public domain.
This is the evaluation version of My Little Realm's Savings. It
is a full-featured, fully functional program. You are welcome to
try it on your computer to ensure that it functions on your system
as it should, and that it meets your individual needs. If after
30 days you decide to keep using Savings, you must register the
program with the author. To print an order form, press <$> in
the Options Window.
Bonus! Purchase any MLR stand-alone program before 12/31/94 and
receive another absolutely free. See DESCRIBE.TXT for details.
Thank you for trying Savings!
____________________________________________________________________
Introduction
Savings is a financial recorder that helps you to keep track of
all your savings instruments; their values, account numbers, where
the legal documents are kept, and any other pertinent information.
It can also print the net worth of your total savings portfolio
(option <5>).
Savings is ideal for the long term investments that you might be
holding for your retirement, for example, or for your children's
education. (You may find this hard to believe now, if you're just
starting out, but it isn't all that difficult to forget what you
have in the way of savings instruments and where you've stored all
of the appropriate records after a span of 15 or 20 years.)
If you're planning to apply for a home loan or if you're attempting
to refinance the mortgage on your present home, update all of the
records in your Savings file and invoke option <5> to print out a
listing of your savings portfolio. The mortgage company's
representative will want to know much of what you have in the
listing (how much you have in CD's, mutual funds, etc., and with
which banks you are presently doing business).
----------
Please note that Savings is a financial recorder. It
is not a financial planner or an investment tool. It
cannot help you make buy and sell decisions for stocks
and bonds.
____________________________________________________________________
The Interface
Windows.
Savings's screen consists of three types of windows: a Working
Window, a Viewing Window, and an Options Window. If you are using
a color monitor the Viewing Window is always green, the Working
Window red and the Options Window blue.
You select processes (like adding a record) in the Options Window.
You create and view your records in the Working Window, and you
find your Quickeys in the Viewing Window.
----------------------------
Extended processing options.
Several processing tasks, called extended processing options or
EPO's, are not listed in the Options Windows, because they are
functions that only occasionally need to be performed. EPO's are
used to "extend" a program's power and functionality.
To find out what EPO commands are employed by Savings, enter <?>
(the question mark) in the Options Window. The EPO's of Savings
are defined at the end of this document.
----------------------------
Quickeys.
The Quickeys in Savings give you single key access to the types
of savings instruments you can invest in. Enter them once, and
you'll never have to enter them again. See the section "Extended
Processing Options" for full information on adding your own
savings instruments to the Quickey list. [Note: You cannot change
the instruments that come with Savings.]
____________________________________________________________________
Program Information
____________________________________________________________________
The Options Window.
__________________________________________________
| |
| 1 Add 3 View |
| 2 Update/ 4 Delete Choice: _ |
| Change 5 Print |
|__________________________________________________|
There are several extended processing options available, as well.
See the section Extended Processing Options described at the end of
this document.
____________________________________________________________________
Option # 1, adding records.
To add new savings instruments to your savings file, select 1, and
Savings will put your cursor in the Working Window on the
Instrument line. Choose one of the Quickeys and press <enter>. If
you decide to enter an instrument category manually, be sure to
keep it short and memorable, because you'll have to spell it the
same way when you want Savings to find it for you later on.
Note: If, by chance, you lose one of your
instrument records, use the <+> EPO to find it.
Pressing <esc> anywhere in the Working Window will return you to
the Options Window without creating a record. To end an input
session, press <esc> when the cursor is in the Instrument field.
____________________
~ Field Definitions ~
- Instrument field (20, required).
__________________________
Here Savings asks for the type | Quickeys |
of instrument you are entering. | |
This is a required entry, and | - Instruments - |
it is also where you make use of | |
the Quickeys. Please refer to | A Passbook Savings |
the Viewing Window on the right | B Cert. of Deposit |
side of the Savings screen. It | C IRA |
should look similar to the one | D Keough |
here ---> | E Savings Bond |
| F General Bond |
You can, if you need to, enter | G Stock |
your own instrument type manually, | H Mutual Fund |
but you should keep the entry | I Profit Sharing |
short and simple. Otherwise, you | J Treasury Bill |
could have trouble finding your | K |
entry when it comes time to make | L |
updates. Remember, on subsequent | M |
lookups, any instrument you | N |
entered manually must be entered | O |
manually again and it must be |__________________________|
spelled exactly as you
originally entered it. You do not have to worry about upper and
lower case inconsistencies, however.
As is always the recommendation in any My Little Realm program, use
the Quickeys whenever possible to save wear and tear on the psyche.
The Change Quickeys EPO allows you to supplement the instrument
list that comes with Savings.
____________________
- B/C Name field (36, optional).
This is the Bank or Corporation name found on the instrument.
In the case of stocks, for example, it is the name of the company
that appears on the stock (i.e., the company whose stock you have
purchased). For passbook savings, it is the name of the bank that
issued the passbook. For mutual funds, the mutual trust name.
Profit sharing investments should be given the name of the company
that handles the investments for you (usually the company for which
you work).
____________________
- Holder field (36, optional).
Enter the name of the owner of the instrument being recorded. For
a Passbook Savings account, for example, it would be the name of
the person on the passbook.
____________________
- Amount field (must be greater than zero and less than $5,000,000).
Omit dollar signs and commas when entering this information.
If you are entering a stock, bond or mutual fund record and you
want Savings to calculate the amount for you, press <enter> without
entering an amount in the Amount field. Savings will then ask for
the CPU (cost per unit) and the NOU (number of units). The CPU
and NOU fields are at the bottom of the Working Window.
Amounts up to five million dollars can be entered for each
instrument.
The CPU entry cannot be greater than ten thousand dollars, and the
NOU entry must be less than or equal to one million. If the result
of multiplying the cost per unit by the number of units is greater
than the Amount field limit ($5,000.000.00), you will have to
reenter the CPU and NOU amounts.
____________________
- Date field (required).
Use the standard American date format of mm/dd/yy. Savings will
offer your computer's current system date. Make the appropriate
changes and press the down arrow or <enter>.
You typically enter the "recording" date in this field (i.e., the
date you enter the record in Savings), even if the record is for
a Savings Bond you acquired several years ago. After a record's
initial entry, the date field serves to remind you when you last
updated the record. For example, if you receive updates from a
financial company about your mutual funds every quarter, remember
to change the date when you update your mutual funds record.
Savings will accept dates for the current month and the four
previous months. You cannot enter future dates.
____________________
- Account Number field (34, optional).
This field should be used to identify the specific instrument being
recorded. For example, you might have numerous certificates of
deposit. Each will have a unique account number. Use the account
numbers to identify each instrument entry.
____________________
- Memo field (38, optional).
Any additional information relevant to the instrument being
recorded should be entered in this field. If you are entering
stocks, you might want to enter the phone number or the name of
your broker. You should also make a note of the location of the
instrument. For instance, you might keep your CD's in your safe
deposit box; your savings bonds in a file folder; or your passbook
savings book in your chest of drawers. You can also include any
interest rate or other pertinent information on this line.
____________________________________________________________________
Option # 2, updating and changing the data in records.
Select one of the Quickeys or enter your own category (as long as
you spell it exactly as you entered it when you first created the
record).
Savings will ask if the first record of the category you selected
is the one you wish to change. If it isn't, press <N> or use the
directional keys to find the record you want to modify. When you
find the record you want to change, press <Y> or <enter>.
Savings will display the fields you can change in the Viewing
Window. Enter the field's corresponding hotkey, and Savings will
place your cursor in that field and let you make the necessary
modifications. If you decide you want to keep the field's old
data, press <esc> while you are still in that field and Savings
will reinstate that field's old value.
A number of the instrument categories can have their amounts
changed in different ways in this function. Instruments like
stocks, bonds and mutual funds can either have their amounts
entered directly or you can have Savings calculate the amount for
you. If the amount can be calculated for you, the CPU (cost per
unit) and NOU (number of units) selections will be highlighted.
If you've used the CPU and NOU fields to have Savings calculate
your amount for you, Savings has retain those figures for future
reference. That way you can easily update your record by changing
only the field whose value has changed. For example, if you have a
stock whose value has gone up ... or down ..., but you still have
the same number of stocks, all you have to do to update the record
is give Savings the new stock price (CPU).
On the other hand, if you've sold some of the stock (or bought some
more) but its price has remained the same, you need only reenter
the new number of stocks. And, of course, you can always reenter
both numbers to have Savings recalculate your amount.
If you have CPU and NOU figures in your record but you choose to
enter the amount directly, Savings will delete the old CPU and NOU
values because it has no way of determining which figure has
changed, of if both figures have changed. [Tip: It's wise to use
the NOU and CPU figures whenever you can. Savings makes a handy
calculator.]
Note: Several types of instruments cannot use the cost per unit
field or the number of units field (e.g., Passbook Savings). For
those instruments, you can only enter an amount directly by using
selection 3 in the Change Fields sub-menu. Hence, selections 7 and
8 are not highlighted, meaning they are unavailable, for those
instruments.
____________________________________________________________________
Option # 3, viewing records.
Enter the instrument category you want to peruse. Savings will
display the first record in the chosen category. If there is only
one instrument in that category, Savings will tell you so. If
there are more than one, Savings will tell you to use the
directional keys to view your records.
If you would like to view all of the records in your savings file,
without regard to instrument category, use the View All function,
invoked by the <+> EPO, described in the Extended Processing
Options section.
____________________________________________________________________
Option # 4, deleting records.
You find and select the record by using the directional keys to
find the record you want to delete and then pressing <Y> or <enter>
in response to Savings's query "Delete? <Y> <N>".
Once you've selected a record, Savings will ask for verification
before deleting the record. Be certain that it is the record you
want to delete because there is no undelete feature. If you are
sure, press <Y>. [Note: You cannot press <enter> for <Y> in this
final query.]
____________________________________________________________________
Option # 5, printing savings portfolio.
This function lists all of your instruments by category, printing
the sub-total of each category as well as the final total of all of
the investments in your file at the end of the document.
Even if you haven't any interest in the total amount of your
savings portfolio, a printout of these records would still prove
invaluable should your computer's hard disk ever fail you. Or,
should you one day decide to apply for a mortgage or attempt to
refinance your present home, the mortgage company with which you
do business will need to know your current assests (how much you
have in CD's, mutual funds, etc., and with which banks). All
you'll have to do is pull out this listing.
The listing should be kept in a file folder marked "Savings" or
"Investments" in a metal file cabinet along with your other
important banking and investment documents.
You can terminate the Print function at any time by pressing <esc>.
____________________________________________________________________
The Extended Processing Options.
EPO Definition
<\> Change Quickeys K through O. Savings will ask you which
Quickey you want to change. It will then erase the old
name and position your cursor in the Viewing Window,
awaiting your new Quickey instrument entry.
If you press the wrong Quickey, press <esc> while the
cursor is in the Viewing Window and the old Quickey
instrument category will be restored. To end the Change
Quickey function press <esc> when Savings asks which
Quickey you want to change.
Quickeys can be sixteen characters long.
Note: The Savings-supplied Quickey Instrument categories
(A through J) are immutable.
- - - - - - - - -
<+> View all records in the Savings file. This allows you to
see all of the records irrespective of the type of
savings instrument. You browse through your file by
using the directional keys, <ctrl> + <home>, and
<ctrl> + <end>.
This EPO is convenient should you `misplace' one of your
records. You can lose a record by manually entering an
instrument type and then forgetting exactly how you
entered it. Use the Quickeys whenever possible.
- - - - - - - - -
<$> Print an order form.
- - - - - - - - -
<?> Display the Savings's EPO symbols and their definitions.
____________________________________________________________________
+ The End +
____________________________________________________________________
(c) Copyright 1991 - 1992 John L. Salisbury
